"INHERIT THE WIND", Albany Civic Theater, 05/08/2008

ALBANY … “Inherit The Wind” is one of those works that remains unfortunately timeless. Unfortunately? Well, it was written in response to the McCarthy era, and it was based on the Scopes monkey trial of 1925, and somehow, all these years later, the play’s topics are still timely.

Folks are still arguing evolution and creationism (excuse me, intelligent design), and the government is still making it hard for those same folks … or at least some of them … to speak their minds.

Albany Civic Theater is currently offering a production of the play that boasts Christopher Foster and Barry Corlew in the roles of the sparring orators Henry Drummond (modeled after Clarence Darrow) and Mathew Harrison Brady (after William Jennings Bryan).

Foster and Corlew are both veterans of the area theater scene and they put on quite a show on Second Avenue.

Foster comes across like a force of nature, with a belly laugh that is wise, wicked and doubting all at once.

Corlew is stiff and righteous, as befitting his character.

There are other actors in the play, but you wouldn’t know it when they’re speaking.

Drummond is defending a young schoolteacher, Bertram Cates (Nate Beynon), who is on trial for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Brady is the avenging angel bent on making the town of Hillsboro into a beacon of American spirituality.

Much of the play takes place in the courtroom, and director Carol King banks heavily on the strength of Foster and Corlew.

Beynon, in his occasional moments, is also strong and his growing resume proves he’s welcome on local stages.

Other major players include John Field Wood as the judge; Chas Treadwell as the Rev. Jeremiah Brown; and Kevin X. McNamara as the unctuous big city newsman E.K. Hornbeck.

McNamara might be having too much fun with the role, even though he functions as a sort of snide voice of reason.

The rest of the cast is filled out with plenty of kids, townsfolk and jurors.

Playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee clearly favor Drummond’s stance, but they do give good weight to both sides and Drummond’s turnabout (excellently rendered by Foster) at the end of the play is resonant.

So is Foster’s big turn in the second act, in which he actually puts Brady on the stand and proceeds to grill him about the text of the Bible.

Foster has always been strong with big, bellowing roles and he is clearly in his element here. Corlew is caught in his wake and doesn’t fare (theatrically) quite as well, but it’s still an impressive bout.

Perhaps Foster should have been a lawyer after all.

Michael Eck, a freelance writer from Albany, is a regular contributor to the Times Union.